Love Essex, Love Food

Monday 1 January 2024

Join us in the fight against food waste

Did you know that the average Essex household wastes £60 every month by throwing away food that could have been eaten?

Food makes up roughly a quarter of what we throw away in our rubbish bins. Not only is this a waste of money, but it’s also damaging the environment. If disposed of in the general rubbish, food releases methane - a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.

Avoiding food waste would benefit the environment as much as taking a quarter of cars off the road!

To encourage Essex residents to make the most of their food, we’ve put together the handy guide below. By following some simple steps, we can save food, money and protect the environment.

Your step-by-step guide to reduce food waste

Try your hand at some the challenges below and you’ll see your food waste and shopping bill decrease.

• Keep a food waste diary
• Make a meal plan
• Use a shopping list
• Chill your fridge
• Know your portions
• Store food correctly
• Make the most of your leftovers
• Understand food labels
• Use a food waste app

Subscribe to the Love Essex newsletter for monthly tips to help you reduce waste and recycle more.

Inspiration

For a little fun, and some inspiration on how to reduce food waste, watch “What a Waste”. It shows the story of an apple that, instead of being eaten, was thrown away.

Our “Apple-y ever after" animation has a different ending to the story…

 

During January and February, we’re teaming up with Essex influencer Katie Cooks. On her Instagram channel, Katie will show simple hacks we can all use to reduce waste while cooking, storing and reusing food every day.

Campaign story

During our Love Essex, Love Food campaign in 2023, we worked in partnership with councils across Essex to inspire residents to reduce their food waste.

• We explored different ways to reduce waste and ran competitions, where participants could win £60 in supermarket vouchers.
• Food waste is a regular feature on the monthly Love Essex newsletter, and we also published a special food edition every quarter.
• Overall more than 1,800 residents decided to take action. It’s been great to hear your stories about how the tips and challenges have helped form new waste reducing habits. Some people were even more pleased because, by shopping less often, they used their car less, so feel they have created less pollution.
• Throughout the year we took part in local events and talked to residents about what they were finding difficult, and what ideas they could try next.

At "Apple day" in Cressing Temple Barns, we teamed up with Zero waste chef Tristan Welch for an inspiring cooking demonstration. Visitors could see how easy it is to replace ingredients in a recipe with what you already have at home, get creative and enjoy the whole of your food. 

Have a go at the recipes yourself:

• Apple, cheddar and walnut sausage roll recipe
• Apple scrap vinegar recipe
• Tomato, apple and celery soup recipe